Anita Moorjani did not have your typical upbringing. She was of Indian decent and her family was of traditional Hindu heritage, but Anita grew up in Hong Kong with a British education. Growing up, her closest friend was her family’s servant and her nanny Ah Fong who taught her Cantonese and Chinese culture. Her friends at school spoke English and practiced British customs. She spoke three languages, cultures and ways of life but always had a hunger for more. At the same time this left her very confused about who she was and where she fit in. She loved her family and never wanted to be a problem for them yet she couldn’t follow the Hindu customs. A big turning point for her was after her parents picked a suitable groom and she was unable to …show more content…
Anita set out to find a cure in India. She spent 6 months there where a yoga master gave her a strict regimen to follow of a diet, herbal remedies, and yoga. He believed in keeping the body balance and ridding your body of the bad. When Anita told him he had cancer, he responded “Cancer is just a word that creates fear. Forget about that word, and let’s just focus on balancing your body. All illness are just symptoms of imbalance. No illness can remain when your entire system is in balance” (pg 50). From this point forward, Anita focused on balancing her body and life.
The cancer metastasized throughout her entire body and sent her to the hospital where she was near death. During her near death experience (NDE) she was able to see those who have passed on such as her father and Soni, and learned of the purpose of life. She describes it as a tapestry where each life is woven together with a purpose. From this, she learned her life is not yet over and she will be healed. Days after she wakes up, the doctors are flabbergasted to learn that her cancer is nowhere to be found. She knows she is healed as she now has balance.
Feeling Helpless:
Cancer is an ugly disease and can cause ugly emotions, fears, and issues. Not only does the patient have to cope worry and stress of the new diagnosis as well as their family but also with the treatments for the illness and the side effects that they brings on as well. “These effects contribute to
They had now found out that she has cancer again since one tiny cell didn’t get killed. This cancer cell has been growing through all the years and it has become worse, it was now a stage 4 cancer, the highest stage, and has now moved into her bones. She still stands strong today and she says that she made it through all the pain and feeling hopeless through God. A miracle have happened so far from 2013 to 2015 she has gotten better and is out of the hospital. She is back to her normal daily routine and enjoying life as much as she can. “I don’t plan on leaving soon, I just need to get ready for when god calls me home “. She will never give up this life and stop fighting even though every single thing, when it turns
Carr, B. (2013). Psychological aspects of cancer: A guide to emotional and psychological consequences of cancer, their causes and their management. New York: Springer.
Cancer affects everyone – the young and old, the rich and poor, men, women and children – and represents a tremendous burden on patients, families and societies. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly in developing countries.
Studies indicate that over the last decade, the number of people suffering from cancer has increasingly gone higher. Cancer is a disease that brings fear upon its victims, especially when its diagnosis is made late. Needless to say, many people die from the fear rather than the disease itself. Medical practitioners do not term cancer as a disease but as a lifestyle condition. People may not be able to completely cure the cancer (depending on the type or stage of cancer) but they may change their perception or lifestyle, and thus be able to reduce the anticipated results.
In the United States alone, there was an estimated 1,685,210 new cases of cancer and an estimated of 595,690 people will die from the disease in 2016 ("Cancer Statistics”). Cancer is a very common aliment that affects men, women, children, and all races and ethnicities. There are many different types of cancers, and cancer research has been a focal point for many scientists. There are various treatments that a cancer patient to undergo. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immune therapy are among the most common ones. Each treatment works differently, and has different positive and negative side effects.
“Lets not call cancer patients as patients, they are cancer fighters. They are brave hearts” - Vikrmn, Gura. Nowadays, you hear more and more people getting cancer(13). It is a stress that many people worry about. You worry if one of your parents will get it. You pray your children don't’ get it. It’s a constant worry. You watch television and you can get this horrible monster from microwaving your food, drinking bottled water, carrying your phone in your pocket, using deodorant, coloring your hair and much more. Finding a cure for cancer would be a prayer answered for many.
The causes of cancer are nothing compared to the effects it has on the person’s body and the person’s family. The effects of cancer are very different for everyone, they change the person socially, physically and emotionally. Cancer has many effects on the human body, they include: physical body changes, nausea and vomiting and the most serious effect is death. Cancer can also effect the people around them in many ways, most families have to change their lifestyles to perform the needs of the cancer patient, when a death happens to occur that really affects the family, and lastly a family’s emotional state changes as well. Cancer has many effects on the patient and their families.
Unfortunately 30% of people in the US will develop cancer at some point, and two-thirds of those will eventually succumb as a result. In dealing with cancer, many patients have symptoms from the disease along with side effects of the medications that are extremely debilitating.
When a person is diagnosed with terminal cancer can respond in different manners. Initially, there are patients that enter in a phase of denial, where he or she does not want to accept that the cancer is the cause of all the symptoms and consequently refuse the appropriate treatment. Depression is another and one of the most significant factors during this illness. In this moments the recurrent thoughts about death and the hopeless idea that there is not anything to do originate sadness, restlessness, and insomnia. Other symptoms can be added in the third case where the patient suffers from acute anxiety, inducing agitation, tachycardia, hyperventilation, panic disorder, etc. Anger for the injustice of being sick and a fighting determination are the resting two reactions in a person with a terminal decease.
Cancer is a frightening topic, the National Cancer Institute states that “more women in America have died of [cancer] in the last two decades [than in WW1 and WW2 combined]”. It’s no wonder the word alone can bring anguish to many, there is still much we don’t understand about cancer. It wasn’t until recently that we began to noticed a trend of disease in my family. My grandmother Olga Losoya Suarez passed away in August of 2015 to colon cancer at the age of 75. As one can imagine this was devastating as she was the center of the family, always bringing everyone together on the holidays. Soon disaster struck again as my grandmother on my father’s side, Carolina Tovar, passed from pancreatic cancer in June of 2016 at the age of 71. Although most of the family felt a mixture of emotions, one that dominated the rest was concern. My parents, Aunts, and Uncles concerned that cancer was becoming more prominent in our family sought checkups from their doctors. My Aunt Linda informed
Being diagnosed with a poor prognosis can cause a various experience and a range of emotions. However, people have to manage these feelings to live a fulfilling life. There are many emotional and cognitive responses which an individual may face after knowing about the diagnosed disease and its prognosis. It is a very difficult situation for the individual and the family. In addition, the individual’s mentally gets changed after knowing his condition. The individual must try to overcome those feelings and remain strong to fight with the diagnosed disease.
It is one of the most dreaded messages to receive. . . “You have cancer”. In 2017, it is estimated that 1,688,780 people in the United States will receive this news (“American Cancer Society”). A diagnosis of cancer can be devastating for a person and his or her family. Many consider a cancer diagnosis a death sentence. It is important to understand what exactly cancer is. Despite a lack of new treatment methods, cancer survival rates are increasing; not much new techniques are being used, and cancer cannot be cured unless more research is done.
Many psychologists feel that psychological treatment is also a good way to teach patients how to endure their physical treatments. Many of these treatments present physical problems, but the treatments are almost more taxing on the mind. “Research clearly shows that unrelieved pain can slow recovery, create burdens for patients and their families and increase costs to the health care system.” (Rabasca, 1999). In overcoming anything whether it is a task for work, school or anything that can be physically and mentally draining like cancer, it is important to keep a strong mind and a positive outlook no matter how rough it is. Most patients of cancer are so far
Cancer has one of the biggest effects on the patients mental health but also the patients loved ones and friends. It is one of the hardest things to get a grip on when the doctor tells someone that they have cancer and a fifty-fifty chance of making it. "The disease can bring many changes-in what people do and how they look, in how they feel and what they value" (Dakota 4). It makes people look at the world and their lives in a different way, valuing now what they took for granted and seeing the bigger picture in every scenario. It is something that no one can actually brace, even after the doctor tells them. Through it all though, the person must remain strong and optimistic because the cancer can affect the person's moods and in return affect the outcome of the person and the chances of their making it
Anita Desai, a noteworthy woman novelist, is a modern Indo-English writer, widely acclaimed not only in India but also in the world of fiction writing. She emerged after independence, deliberating on the highly debatable contemporary issues. Anita Desai is a keen observer of the society and the position of the women in the contemporary society draws her special attention. The novels of Anita Desai are noted for the profound probing into the inner life and feelings of the women, bounded by the shackles of the middle class. They are the explorations of the family problems, which perhaps is the chief cause behind the estrangement of the women from their family. Literature for her is not a means of escaping reality but an exploration and an inquiry. She prefers the private to the public world and avoids the traditional grooves of external reality and physical world. In fact, her real concern is the thorough investigation of human psyche, inner climate, and she unravels the mystery of the inner life of her characters. Her main engagement is to study human existence and human predicament, her exploration being a quest for self. Anita’s main focus, in this way, is to depict the psychic states of her protagonists at some crucial juncture of their lives.